We must zero in on staff rights

This star­tling rev­e­la­tion is bound to in­fu­ri­ate most hard-work­ing cit­i­zens.

Of­fi­cial fig­ures show loans in­clude €300 for an Xbox at Lim­er­ick Prison and €300 for a stereo at Mid­lands Prison.

And one fe­male pris­oner even bor­rowed €300 cash to buy a dog – pos­si­bly for a fam­ily mem­ber.

Many prison loans, funded by the tax­payer, are used to pay for com­mu­nions, con­fir­ma­tions and fam­ily birthdays.

Most peo­ple on the out­side have to save for weeks or months to af­ford th­ese things for their fam­i­lies.

But yet con­victs are en­ti­tled to ap­ply for an in­ter­est-free loan from Irish Prison Ser­vice cof­fers.

Why should the av­er­age cit­i­zen have to pay for pris­on­ers’ Christ­mas wish-lists?

The big­gest lender was the Mid­lands Prison in Port­laoise which loaned out a to­tal of €139,880.

While it could be ar­gued learn­ing how to pay back a small loan is part of re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion, many oth­ers will rea­son life is too easy for those in­side.

Per­haps teach­ing pris­on­ers how to earn their lux­u­ries in­stead of get­ting them handed to them is the way for­ward. IF the Gov­ern­ment was be­ing paid over­time for the de­lay in ban­ning zero hours con­tracts it would be worth a for­tune.